One of my personal goals in life is to invest time and energy into building strategies for success when things are going well … so that when challenges come I am able to use these strategies with greater ease. If you’ve tried to insert a new habit into an already challenging situation you know what I mean.
Read MoreMy mystifying reality: I’m a mid-west gal who grew up surrounded by cornfields and dwelling with the Barcalounger people in their wood-paneled “rec rooms” a/k/a basements. How? Even as a child I always felt I was a fuchsia blossom exiled to a vast beige wasteland. These are not my people. However, thanks to a library annex that opened in our small hamlet, and a sympathetic librarian who informed me that I was not required to adhere to reading books for my grade level, I became an insatiable reader and enthusiastic learner. I wanted to know about lots of things, and I especially loved books about other cultures and how folks in far away places lived. My imagination soared.
Read MoreAdoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parents to the adoptive parents.
My reason for sharing about adoption is not just to delight in my family, but to delight in God’s family and how He created our brains with the ability to bond securely with one another and, ultimately, with Him. The joy these secure family bonds brings to our lives is worth talking about.
Read MoreDrained. Burned out. Life had just exceeded my ability to maintain cohesion with the space/time continuum. I had reached a point of physical and emotional depletion. Something dramatic needed to be done. So I elected to perform a positively hedonistic maneuver: I decided to stop everything and Do Nothing. As in do nothing that I should do. The intent was to just do plenty of “nothing” that I, selfishly, wanted to do. Right now. Not next month, next summer. Now, today. And it’s a thing. In Italian, the concept is dolce far niente --- the sweet doing nothing.
Read MoreWhen I run out of fingers and toes, I have a serious problem. Math was never my area of giftedness. Creativity, reading, and writing are my strengths, so when the Scriptures tell us to “count it all joy,” I secretly cringe inside. I’m terrible at math!
This verse has bothered me for years: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds….” (James 1:2 NIV)
The idea of counting everything in life as an opportunity for joy seems over-the-top, pie-in-the-sky type thinking. You’d have to be blind not to see that life is not always joy-filled.
Read MoreThe first half of 2022 has been filled with a lot of tragedy. So much tragedy that we can feel more intimately acquainted with sorrow than with joy.
Is it even possible to feel joy when the world is in such a mess? How do we move forward? How do we find any joy when surrounded by unbelievable tragedy?
Read MoreFlapping. It’s actually flapping. For real. That clapping sound I hear as I vigorously comb out my long, wet hair is not my husband applauding my de-tangling technique. No, it now appears that my upper arm flab has become so, well, flabby, that it swings freely and contacts my body with every motion of my arm. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no.
Behold: yet another one of the indignities of old(er) age.
If you’re like me, you have now reached the stage of life when you have all the physical ailments and oddities that you used to make fun of about your mom or grandma. More pesky hairs on your chin rather than in your eyebrows? Check. Chicken-ish skin on the backs of your hands? Check. Unlovely varicose veins? Check. Saggy boobs*? Check. And on it goes. Yea, verily, I have had to repent of much.
Read MoreAmazing adventures that happen when you are expecting something else
Last year, my good buddy Thomas and I decided to rent a boat.
We happen to both be crazy about our families and our brides, who happen to have birthdays a mere two days apart. So in order to celebrate our respective wives, we decided to go half-sies and rent a boat. (Important detail: We both love boats but we are both currently boat-less.)
After thorough research, Thomas found a sweet deal on a four hour boat rental and we decided to officially embark on a voyage to Disappearing Island. The pictures of this particular sea vessel looked amazing, and the nice gentleman with the faux island-y accent assured Thomas via his mobile device that it was in fact a new boat.
Once there were five-year-old twin boys, one a pessimist and the other an optimist. Wondering how two boys who seemed so alike could be so different, their parents took them to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist took the pessimist to a room piled high with new toys, expecting the boy to be thrilled, but instead he burst into tears.
Puzzled, the psychiatrist asked, “Don’t you want to play with these toys?” “Yes,” the little boy bawled, “but if I did, I’d only break them.”
Next the psychiatrist took the optimist to a room piled high with horse manure. The boy yelped with delight, clambered to the top of the pile, and joyfully dug out scoop after scoop, tossing the manure into the air with glee. “What on earth are you doing?” the psychiatrist asked.
“Well,” said the boy, beaming, “There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”
Read MoreI’ve been visiting my sister and her family this week, and my ears have been tickled often with the most beautiful sound—the uninhibited laughter of my eight-year-old niece. It’s genuine and funny and contagious.
Laughter is often infectious (good infection, not pandemic infection). How often have you heard laughter, didn’t know the source, but it made you want to laugh too? You laugh along, and before long you’re just laughing because if feels so good.
Read MoreSix years ago I was having severe physical issues which lead to a cancer diagnosis. Stage three B, with a year of treatment. Almost immediately I decided that it would be an adventure. And what makes for a good adventure?
Read MoreMusic is one of the only activities that activates, stimulates, and uses the entire brain. Music is so powerful that childhood songs often stay in our memory for a lifetime, exceeding our ability to remember what day of the week it is. That is a power worth harnessing for good. Educators take advantage of that truth when they use music to effectively accomplish educational goals. Often childhood exposure to music includes, A, B, C’s , Won’t You Be My Friend, and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Christian songs for children may include; Jesus loves Me, His Banner Over Me is Love, and I’ve Got the Joy, Joy , Joy Down in My Heart.
Read MoreOkay. I confess. I hereby openly admit to (gasp!) re-gifting something: a black cotton jacket with beautiful designs embroidered in bright colors. I had initially given it to my mom - who immediately deemed it as “very fancy” and destined it (potentially, in theory, maybe, some day, perhaps) to be used on some future, unspecified Special Occasion. Sadly, that special occasion never came around in her mind. She never wore the jacket, considering it to be too precious to actually be used. This was a cotton jacket, my friends, not a mink stole. I was not all that surprised, but it pained me to see that my mom, reared in a desperately poor Great Depression household, could never use or enjoy something that she felt was above her perceived level in life or which could be harmed by actually using it.
Read MoreStatistics tell us 90% of Americans will make New Year’s resolutions. Sadly, 50% of us will have abandoned our goals by the end of January. Of those still holding on to hope, only 50% of our intentions will be realized. So why do we continue this tortuous ritual? Perhaps it is the hope that this year we will make better choices, this year we will have success. This year, we tell ourselves, will finally be the year we turn that corner, flip over the new leaf, and begin again.
Read MoreI believe the ultimate guide to joy is the Bible.
In a world where anything goes, confusion reigns, and division and hatred are spewed forth through the news and other media sources, we need peace, hope and joy more than ever. For now let’s focus on joy. To understand where joy comes from and how we can have it … the Bible is the place where I search for the answers.
Read MoreI’m an organized, diligent person. Someone who can be given a task and see it through without the necessity of someone micromanaging me. I’m really good at anticipating what’s going to be needed, how it should be set up, the sequence of all the needed steps… and all the ways it could all go very, very, completely and horribly wrong. Yes, I confess that I tend to be a worrier. Confidence is often eroded by fear. Like Winnie the Pooh’s scary nemesis the Heffalump, worries frequently swirl around in my brain and sometimes produce so much anxiety that I can barely function. I HATE it when that happens. And it’s happening all too frequently and messing up my life. So why am I worrying so much?
Read MoreI had one of those looooooong days yesterday. A thirteen-hour workday—eleven hours at the office of my part-time job and almost two hours of commuting, with errand running on the back end. I was so exhausted that when I finally fell on the couch, I could barely remember the day at all. I knew I would be writing about how to find joy in the daily grind, but that seemed impossible at that moment.
Read MoreHabit: (noun) a settled or regular tendency or practice.
Even small actions, when done on a regular basis can produce measurable change.
Interact With God About Everything
When we humans are in need, we tend to cry out to God whether we believe in Him, or typically don’t.
God said He would never leave us. Just because we don’t always ‘feel’ it, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. He is always glad to be with us.
He doesn’t wish we would go away, nor does He get bored with us. All the ways others have rejected or abandoned you don’t apply to Him. His love is constant and never changing.
